For me; I mainly use gpu raytracer; so I have an i7 with boost to 4.2ghz. When I have to go to a CPU renderer it’s still faster than my workstation in the office (3.5ghz boost).
So, wait, if I want to use Vray RT, won’t the M5000M 8G GPU kick the M4000M’s 4G butt? (in other words, don’t I need as fast a GPU as possible?)
Also: I have an i7 6700K in my Hackintosh - wish it was an option in the Dell 7710. It seems to be an option in the Boxx laptop.
For product and set design even my T3600 with GTX 770 is good enough.
In ArchViz, when having models with trees, furniture, windows, etc. you will have only really good results in RT rendering when having more than one really good card. But I think the power supply that comes with Dell’s workstations is not strong enough for more than one card. So I guess you cannot just get two GTX 1070. (The 1070 is just slightly slower, but much cheaper…)
Are you married to the dell 7710? Lots of other options around with strong i7’s, big ram capacity and GTX1060 & 1070’s.
I also hear that with the next VfR update VrayRT will improve significantly (maybe even as fast as octane?).
1070 is a beast in octane…
If you’re doing GPU rendering maybe you should look at a Razor blade with an add on GPU via the Razor Core?
It’s about core speed. Xeon’s are basically the same as i7, just more reliable for 24/7 hardcore 100% load. (That’s why they are clocked slower as slower means less heat which again means more reliable)
Ah, thanks for the explanation!
So…what makes it so that my system MODELING stays smooth and light and fast, even when I bog it down with lots of geometry??
That’s probably the most important out of everything. It the absolute worst when the viewport is slow while modeling!
Some great news for all on the price/performance side:) http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-7-1700-cpu-specs-confirmed/
How many objects are “lots of geometry”?
Nice! Gonna check that out, see when the roll-out is, and if it will go in laptops, thx!
Hm, not actually sure how to answer that. If I end up doing some architectural previs with people and drapes and furniture etc. In Vectorworks I’d grt bogged down after just a handful of objects with any kind of organic nature to it. Hard for me to quantify in order to help you help me 
I just worked on a Target commercial and in the model i had (copies) of cereal boxes etc numbering in the hundreds. But maybe thats not an issue with blocks anyway?
Ok, I’m learning…(And a huge thank you to all for this help so far! Sincerely, sincerely appreciated.)
I’ve looked into a few new setups, and thinking this is good:
i7 7th Gen CPU • GTX 1080 GPU • 32G Ram • 250G (?) M.2 OS Drive • 1 TB Sata SSD for Drive #2.
These are a few of the contenders, and I’d really like to know:
Here are the grabs of the system builds (and FYI Boxx just too much for add-ons, and Dell just doesn’t have the hardware config, it seems!)
This may sound nuts, but you could buy this from Newegg for $1200 abd then load it up on as much ram as it would take and a couple of 1080 GTXs and have a great machine for your work.
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I bought a special holiday build from Newegg by an outfit called ABS and am very happy with it. Don’t see it there anymore but this is a sweet package for $1600 and you could add another 1080 to the one that is there and have a ripping machine especially rendering in Octane for under $2000. Might need a bigger power supply for the second card but it is loaded with RAM and uses ASUS MB and GPU.
I’m open to all suggestions! WIll check it out! (though I’ve never head of an ABS Vortex???
Oh…Need a laptop. but thanks!
and then there’s this but it’s not released yet (sorry - tell me if I’m overwhelming with crap 
I would take 64GB RAM.
Often I parallel open complex models (different projects needs to be done without to open/close every time a client ask for a change), start Vray renderings and working on large images at Photoshop and I’m glad to keep all task open.
Also I would buy a PC so you can easier upgrade later. A good large 4k screen isn’t expensive and the work makes much more fun.
Things get much hotter inside a laptop, so rendering means your laptop is like cooking for hours…
I need a mobile workstation. It’s the reaon I’m going through figuring this out.
Thanks Micha for the suggestion of 64G ram.
And yes, I’m looking to configure the best PC laptop workstation I can, without paying additional for things that arent going to help, or aren’t really any better than the next option down.
